Currently, there are a number of headset or earbud configurations available which allows a user to listen to audio streaming from his cellular device. For example, the headset may comprise two earbuds tethered together and optionally tethered to the cellular device or a completely wireless configuration. However, each of these configurations has deficiencies rendering its use less than ideal. For example, the cord that links the two earbuds together and/or links the earbuds to the cellular device often becomes tangled on clothing, hair, or other accessories potentially dislodging one or both earbuds from their position in the user's ear. The cord that links the two earbuds together and/or links the earbuds to the cellular device may restrict movement of the user as the user needs to avoid pulling the cord during use of the system (e.g., exercise, dancing, running, working, etc.).
Further, the communication methods used by available wireless earbuds are also less than ideal. Currently, a first earbud receives a packet of information with a time stamp and then transmits that same packet of information to a second earbud (i.e., a master-slave configuration, as shown in FIG. 12A). Once the time indicated in the time stamp occurs, the audio that was delivered to the first and second earbuds in the packet is played. However, currently available wireless earbuds have two inherent disadvantages with this approach. First, if the time indicated on the time stamp passes and both earbuds do not have the packet containing the audio, then the earbuds do not play the audio, resulting in the first issue: poor signal reception. Second, to decrease poor signal reception (i.e., drop-outs), the time between packet transmission (e.g., by computing device, mobile computing device, case, etc.) to an earbud, packet receipt by the earbud, and time stamp elapse at the earbud is increased (i.e., improve the chances of both earbuds receiving the packet without the time indicated in the time stamp occurring or passing), resulting in the second issue: latency between visual and audio experiences (e.g., lip movement in video does not align with audio). Further, current completely wireless earbuds have a master-slave configuration in which the first earbud needs to receive the packet first and then retransmit the packet to the second earbud, the second earbud receiving the retransmitted packet. This master-slave configuration increases the time required to transmit data or audio to both earbuds increasing the likelihood of poor signal reception (i.e., dropouts). The shadow created by the user's head for the second earbud only exacerbates these disadvantages since the wireless signal does not readily penetrate the skull of the user. Occasionally, environments that provide adequate surfaces for wireless signal reflection and/or that decrease wireless signal dispersion (e.g., more wireless signal reaches intended destination) decrease dropouts and/or the need for latency, but once the user moves outdoors or into a more open space, the latency and poor signal reception problems return.
The poor signal reception and latency issues can be inversely proportional: if latency is increased, audio-visual synchronization is decreased (i.e., fewer dropouts, but audio lagging behind video playback), but if latency is decreased to synchronize audio and video, dropout frequency increases. Thus, a manufacturer is forced to choose which is more important to the user base as a whole: audio-visual synchronization or signal (e.g., audio, data, information, etc.) reception quality (i.e., fewer dropouts).
Further, when using wireless earbuds, it is difficult for a user to continually track the location of their earbuds and provide the earbuds with the re-charge needed after only a few hours of use. However, current cases that allow storage of the earbuds in the case are bulky and difficult to use. For example, if the earbuds are stored near the bottom of the case, the case includes a bulge or widening to accommodate the earbuds which results in difficult one-handed manipulation of the mobile computing device positioned in the case. For example, housing the earbuds at the bottom of the case makes it harder for a user's finger or thumb to reach all of the rectangular surface area of the cellular device's touch screen, especially along the top edge. Further, for example, current cases that allow storage of the earbuds in a top portion of the case, to avoid the issues described above, usually include a widening or bulge to accommodate the earbuds and/or include an overall increased case thickness, resulting in the case being difficult to use and store in a user's pocket.
Mobile computing devices are repeatedly being redesigned to be lighter, thinner, and increasingly portable. To protect these lighter and thinner mobile computing devices, users' desire cases that protect their mobile computing device and house their earbuds but that do not result in increased bulkiness to the overall slim design of the mobile computing device.
Thus, there is a need for new and useful wireless earbud charging and communication systems and methods. This invention provides such new and useful systems and methods.